Adrian Ghenie

Adrian Ghenie paints dark, disturbing canvases that weave together personal and collective memories related to the traumas of European history. The artist is preoccupied with ideologies such as communism and eugenics; throughout his work, he has also referenced Marcel Duchamp, Charles Darwin, and German SS officer and physician Josef Mengele. Evoking the textural richness of Northern Renaissance painting, Ghenie’s canvases depict figurative imagery layered with drips and pours, scraped surfaces, and chiaroscuro. These techniques create alternate moments of clarity, fluidity, and decay within a single composition. A leading figure from the Cluj School of artists, Ghenie represented Romania at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and has enjoyed exhibitions at such institutions as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Tate Liverpool, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest. At auction, his work routinely commands seven-figure prices.